Regularly scheduled refinery turnarounds are one the most important (and expensive) activities of any refiner. Today, we look at what happens during a typical turnaround, the ways refiners seek to manage their risk, and the biggest potential payoffs that come with a well-executed project.
The U.S. has become an oil-exporting powerhouse in recent years, propelled by booming shale production, notably from the Permian Basin. U.S. crude oil now flows more freely than ever to help meet global demand, including to Europe, which increasingly turned to the U.S. following Russia’s invasion of Ukraine two-plus years ago, but exports have slowed recently. In today’s RBN blog, we examine a half-dozen reasons why the export surge has tapered off and why it may not change much in the weeks ahead.
The largest crude oil pipeline exiting the Permian Basin by volume — Wink to Webster (W2W) — is planned to be offline for maintenance for the first 10 days of June. This is inclusive of Enterprise’s Midland-to-ECHO III (ME III), which reflects the company’s 29% undivided joint interest in W2W. Although the outage has not been publicly confirmed, it’s our understanding that 1.5 MMb/d of capacity will be offline to reroute a small section of pipeline. In today’s RBN blog, we’ll examine how the planned maintenance will impact Permian Basin oil takeaway capacity and what it may mean for Midland WTI pricing.
During the first 7 months of 2015 the U.S. experienced record setting refinery crude processing and utilization rates. By the end of July crude inputs topped 17 MMb/d for the first time and nationwide refineries ran at over 96% of operable capacity - reaping the rewards of robust margins. But the party has been marred by a number of unexpected outages – the latest of which brought down a 250 Mb/d unit at BP’s Whiting, IN refinery last weekend – causing a spike in Chicago gasoline prices. Today we ponder why outages may be occurring and the upcoming impact of overdue fall maintenance.
The oil and gas pipeline industry depends on “Pigs” (pipeline integrity gauges) to verify pipelines. They help avoid leaks, fractures and costly unscheduled service interruptions. As massive new oil and gas pipeline construction continues in the US and as existing pipelines get older the pig business is becoming more valuable. But like anything else, they aren’t perfect; and pigging experts and pipeline operators are motivated to make them better. Today we continue our analysis of the pig business with a look at what some of the movers and shakers are doing to support new demands and challenges in this booming industry.
Just like every other kind of mechanical equipment, rail tank cars require maintenance every once in a while. Valves can leak. Linings wear down. Railings, platforms, and brake equipment need periodic repairs. And not surprisingly, the more miles you put on a tank car, the more maintenance it is going to need. As the crude-by-rail phenomenon has grown, so has the rate of ‘bad orders’ – rail cars that must be taken out of service for maintenance. Handling bad orders is a new issue for many producers and refiners just now getting their feet wet in the business. Everyone agrees that this is a very important issue, and the rail industry is not taking it lightly. Today we explore the implications of bad orders in the crude-by-rail market and how progressive solutions are on their way.
Gulf Coast diesel crack spreads (the margin between diesel prices and Light Louisiana Sweet crude - LLS) are averaging just under $16/Bbl this year – about 75 cnts/Bbl lower than 2012 but still pretty healthy. Gulf Coast diesel exports increased by 25 percent in 2012 – mostly to meet increased demand in Latin America. By December Gulf Coast refineries were running at 95 percent capacity to meet export demand. Yet during the first 2 months of 2013 refinery utilization plummeted to 80 percent, diesel production fell and Gulf Coast diesel exports dived by 300 Mb/d. Today we describe the impact that a heavier than usual Gulf Coast refinery repair season had on product exports.
